The popular rhyming book Everywhere Babies shares how adorable babies are and is inspired by a Grandmother's love. But the book was banned by a Florida school district. Author Susan Meyers speculated that the ban might be because of the image of one man embracing another contained in the book.
Meyers said she was inspired to write the books five months after the birth of her first grandchild in 2001.
Everywhere babies
The book was based on the nativity scene, with adults gathered around babies. Meyers hired a prominent artist, Marla Frazee, to illustrate scenes and draw families such as young parents, old parents, and parents from different races, colors, and gender. There are two men or two women with a baby in a couple of images. Frazee said she never specified whether the image refers to sisters, brothers, or spouses, Yahoo! News reports.
She, however, designed the book to ensure that all families, including same-sex couples, feel included. She wanted to make sure that any child looking at the book would find a semblance of their own family.
Frazee added that she found it disturbing that the ban happened two decades later after the book was published, with same-sex marriage legalized in the country seven years ago.
Reason for the ban
Everywhere babies have been featured on the LGBTQ children's book site.
The ban surprised her when the issue made national and international headlines as the book is a preschool family book. She said it's a book you read to kids when they are two years old. Meyers thinks that the school district is trying to "indoctrinate the kids from the cradle."
She said that it was "extremely upsetting."
According to CBC News, the ban would mean the student's access to previously available books is restricted, diminished, or completely removed. The book ban was prompted by calls from elected and state-level officials.
In the last nine months, nearly 1,145 books have been banned across the country in 26 states. Everywhere Babies is among the collection of 58 books that Walton County School District banned. Most of the book cover themes of gender, race, and sexuality.
School officials in Walton County received a list from a conservative group of 58 books that they deem inappropriate for schools. Florida Citizens Alliance suggested the list containing what the group considers pornographic or age-inappropriate books. While some on the 58 selection are unsurprising, such as the Fifty Shades of Grey, others are literary gems. These include The Kite Runner by Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini and The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. There were also illustrated books for younger kids like Tango Makes Three and Everywhere Babies, as per Nationworld News.
Walton County school superintendent Russell Hughes said that they do not ban books. When asked about Everywhere Babies, Hughes said that the books were not on any of the library shelves in his county school, so it was not removed.
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